Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This is a pretty robust bill. When we look at it and we read the whole bill, we see the changes and the contemplations in relation to the Canada Marine Act and the modernization, the alignment with the supply chain study and hopefully soon-to-be strategy, the multimodal networks and the alignment of the different methods of transportation: railroad, air, and water. There are capital investments and the expectation that assets will be managed in a more disciplined manner, versus what was in the past with a lot of ports in my area, including the St. Lawrence Seaway. There's port competitiveness and managing traffic, developing possible inland waterways and expanding the strategic planning of different ports, implementing their strategic plans and once again aligning themselves with the different aspects of the business. There's governance and working with indigenous groups, as well as environmental sustainability, railway safety and security, and transparency. Then there's adaptability, and the list goes on.
Once again, it's a very robust bill. What I like about it is that it really takes a whole-of-government approach and concentrates on something the government has to do more of, which is concentrating on the business of government versus concentrating on the business of politics—I have another word for it, but I'll be polite. I like that.
The expectation from this study will be that once the bill goes back to the House for a third reading, it will take into consideration a lot of the testimony that's coming out of this, because although it's a very robust bill, there's still a bit of work that has to be done to it, and I'm hoping a lot of that work will come out of both committees, as well as when it goes back to the House for third reading.
I have two questions. This is definitely going to add a lot of capacity, a lot of opportunities for the economy. I know that in my area, in Niagara, this is what we depend on. This alone is what is rebuilding our economy. The challenge, however, is recognizing the capacity that we need in order to fulfill what this bill is trying to do.
My first question is for Mr. Hamilton with respect to CBSA. In terms of the capacity of CBSA, there's no question that this is going to place a burden—I won't say “burden” but there's a pressure—on your organization to really pick up in areas that may not exist now, container ports that don't exist right now, in different parts of the country. In the Great Lakes, we have the cruise ship industry, which didn't exist before.
Are you going to have the capacity to fulfill those obligations and meet the increases within that sector?